Theft of telecommunication devices, such as smart phones, is an increasing problem. Such phones are easily stolen, repurposed, and resold, typically in other countries. The popularity of many smart phones and the difficulty in obtaining them in some locations has made the theft of these devices very prevalent, creating difficulties for both the device users and the telecommunication service providers. Users must purchase new devices, and service providers must take steps to make sure that the users of the stolen devices are unable to use their services. Further, with smart phones being used for an increasing number of personal and business tasks, valuable personal or commercial data may also be illicitly obtained as part of the theft.
To address these problems, government entities are increasingly requiring telecommunication services providers to build technology on the network and the devices to enable the telecommunication service providers to send instructions from the network to the devices to disable those devices.